Stillorgan QBC boosts passenger numbers

The Stillorgan Quality Bus Corridor has been such a success that European transport authorities find it difficult to believe, Dublin Bus said yesterday.

Its managing director, Dr Alan Westwell, said passenger numbers on the morning in-bound route were 116 per cent higher than for the same period last year, a factor he attributed to the QBC.

A "cordon count" at Leeson Street Bridge comparing November 1998 with September 1999 showed the number of people crossing by bus, car, bicycle and motorcycle rose from 8,373 to 9,294 people, an increase in the capacity of the road since the introduction of the QBC.

This latter point was important as preliminary research into the Malahide QBC showed that in the weeks after it opened road capacity fell, indicating the move had been ineffective.

The figures supplied by CIE were supported yesterday by the director of traffic with Dublin Corporation, Mr Owen Keegan, who said they vindicated the Dublin Transportation Office's view.

He was, he said, glad that the public, councillors and business people had been sceptical in the beginning because "it will make it easier to implement the remaining QBCs". He said the impact on traffic flows was less than expected, with the in-bound journey by car taking five to 15 minutes longer than it had before the QBC was introduced.

The Assistant Garda Commissioner, Mr Jim McHugh, said he was particularly pleased with the "courtesy" and the ability to merge shown by drivers as they approached the single line of traffic through Donnybrook.

Mr John Henry of the DTO said the success showed it was not necessary to have park-and-ride facilities for the QBC to work.

But it was Dr Westwell's day as he explained that he had just returned from a meeting of transport personnel in Brussels, where his colleagues were "amazed at such excellent results".